Cherry Blossom Buds
by Scribbler
Summary: Future fic. When Anzu collapses while out shopping, Jounouchi and Mai have to take a distraught Yuugi to the hospital much earlier than expected. There they discover that no matter how much time passes or how their lives change, friends are still friends and their kind of friendship stays strong in any crisis.


**Disclaimer: **Verily not mine.

**A/N:** Written for ygodrabble Challenge #81 'Family', although this is the extended FFN version.

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**_Cherry Blossom Buds_**

(c) Scribbler, December 2012.

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Yuugi shoved the door with both hands. It was a pull door. He learned that he should pay more attention to his surroundings when it refused to budge and he walked into the glass.

"Ow!"

"Careful, buddy." Jounouchi reached past him to pull it open. "We gotta go to the left–"

Yuugi cut him off by haring down the corridor like every hound of hell was on his heels. Mai came up behind Jounouchi and patted his shoulder, the gold band on her finger flashing under the halogen lights.

"He can't hear you. The only thing in his head is them. Didn't you notice how he wasn't talking in the car? Heck, didn't you notice we had to drive him in your death trap the first place?"

"My truck ain't so bad," Jounouchi protested, but it was more out of habit than because he meant it.

"If I could get behind the wheel of mine I'd never go near that thing."

"You got a prissy girly car. No way am I driving that thing."

She sighed. "New setting, old argument. Move it, chuckles, or we'll never catch up to Yuugi."

They caught up with him sooner than anticipated. Around the next corner an officious nurse was wagging her finger at him. Yuugi clearly wasn't listening. He kept looking past her and shuffling his feet, as if he wore invisible winged sandals that had someplace more important to be. Actually, that wasn't far from the truth. From the moment the phone-call came through to the game shop he had stopped seeing the world around him as anything more than scenery to pass through. It was a miracle he had remembered to call his grandfather to take over his shift while he came to the hospital and pure luck Jounouchi and Mai had been visiting at the right time to keep him from causing a road accident.

"And if I catch you running like that again," they heard the nurse say, "I'll personally march you back to the waiting room, where you'll stay until you acknowledge there are patients who do NOT need to be knocked down by–"

"Excuse me, ma'am, where's the ladies room?" Mai rescued Yuugi by making sure her swollen belly preceded her into the nurse's line of sight.

"Oh … my." The nurse's tone shifted from dragon to dove. It was true: a smile could change the harshest face. "Right this way, dearie. Take it easy, take it easy, don't go too fast. Tell me, how long until you're due?"

"Two months, but he's dancing on my bladder, so could we hurry?"

"Oh, yes, of course, of course, of course."

Mai looked made a shooing gesture behind her. Jounouchi silently thanked her and shoved Yuugi in the other direction, following the cheery pink arrows on the floor. He had noticed a map that labelled the multifarious coloured arrows and the departments they led to – something he was sure Yuugi had missed in his hurry.

"It's too early," Yuugi muttered. "This is way, way too early."

"Sometimes they come early, dude."

"Two whole months?" His eyes were unnaturally wide, even for him.

Jounouchi gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder. "Hey, you were a fighter, right?"

Yuugi didn't respond. His stunted height and the health problems that had dogged him through childhood made his fears more real than someone who had only read about preemies in books.

When they reached the end of the pink line they entered a boxy room filled with chairs, a coffee machine and a receptionist behind a reinforced Plexiglas screen. There Jounouchi was forced to relinquish his friend. A much kinder nurse took Yuugi through the swinging double doors, also edged in pink. It was as though pink was the best colour to ward off evil. Jounouchi wasn't offended when Yuugi didn't look back. He waited in an uncomfortable plastic chair like he belonged there until Mai arrived and surveyed the doors.

"Someday soon this'll be us for real."

"Not too soon." Jounouchi clasped his fingers together and stared at the interlocking digits. "Hey… you, uh … y'think Anzu's gonna be okay?"

Mai plopped down next to him as if she understood what it took for him to admit he was worried. "She's a fighter."

Jounouchi's smile was watery at the familiarity of that statement. They were all fighters, just in different kinds of battles than this. The smile washed away almost immediately. "They'll be fine," he said, as much to reassure himself as Mai. "Otogi's on his way. Honda too. Probably breaking the speed limit on his bike. Probably end up in the ER himself. Idiot."

Mai put a hand on his arm. "They'll all be fine." She squeezed and smiled sharply. "Idiot."

He unlaced his hands so he could lace his fingers with hers instead; a rare open acknowledgement of what swelled in his heart when he looked at her. Years of wasted chances and missed opportunities had finally culminated in a special visit to apologise from her, a bolt of last ditch courage from him, a lung-burning run to the airport and three hours detained by security for vaulting the barrier before her place to Europe took off. The rest was history freckled with fights, making up, more fighting, more making up and now … this.

Honda arrived looking stressed and complaining about traffic. He apologised profusely until Jounouchi's nerves frayed to breaking point and he threatened to punch him in the mouth. Otogi swept in half an hour later, minus his usual entourage and looking dapper in a poison green business suit and black waistcoat. He wore suits every day since he had officially taken over his father's company, becoming CEO in name as well as deed now the old man's lawyers had finally allowed him to be declared criminally insane. As if dressing as a giant clown and trying to kill people wasn't indication enough? Otogi had been running the show for years but had only recently been able to convert Black Clown Corporation to Black Crown and erase the fact that his own flesh and blood had tried to murder him.

"Any news?" he asked as he sat down and looked distastefully at Honda's dusty bike leathers.

"No," replied Mai. "Not since we called you. They're still in there."

"Poor guys," Honda said with feeling. "They just can't catch a break."

"Babies can survive at twenty-eight weeks," Mai told him firmly. Of all of them, she would know. She had read everything baby-related she could get her manicured hands on. "With help."

Those two words hung between them like the last knell of a funeral bell: _with help._ With breathing apparatus to make unformed lungs work. With IVs of nutrients to make tiny organs function. With cushioning to ensure little soft skulls stayed safe and undamaged. _With help_.

"Shizuka called me as I was setting off," Honda said suddenly. "She got your message, dude, but you'd already arrived here and switched off your cell. She'd be here if she could. She wanted to get a flight from Tokyo but I told her to stay at the university and we'd keep her informed. Did anyone manage to get hold of Bakura?"

Jounouchi snorted. "Do we ever? That guy's like smoke."

"The last I heard he was back in England," Otogi offered. "He didn't leave a forwarding address or contact details other than his cell phone."

"Which he never answers," Jounouchi added.

"He has his reasons for what he does," said Mai. She knew what it was like to drift aimlessly after a tragedy. Fortunately for her she had been able to drive off her demons and put down roots at last.

Bakura had not been so lucky. His time with the Millennium Ring had damaged him and he had not yet made the breakthroughs she had. It saddened everyone, but it was difficult to help someone who actively stopped you helping them by disappearing for long stretches of time.

Honda punched his own palm for forcefully the receptionist behind the Plexiglas looked up in disapproval. "It isn't fair. Why is this happening? Don't Anzu and Yuugi have enough good karma between them for shit like this not to happen anymore?"

"Dude, keep your voice down," Jounouchi warned, eyeing the receptionist.

"It isn't fair," Honda repeated.

Otogi looked at the timepiece on a chain he had taken from his inner pocket. "Life isn't fair, you moron. Haven't you learned that by now?"

Jounouchi and Mai held hands again hours later, when the nurse finally let them into the NICU. The limit was two, so Honda and Otogi gestured them forwards without question. They followed the nurse to where a familiar couple was glued to a plastic box; one in a wheelchair, one beside it. The thing inside the box looked like a baby rat; reddish, wrinkled and about the same size. It was stuck all over with wires and dwarfed by its diaper. Jounouchi could barely believe that was a human being, much less one his best friends had created.

"Hey," Anzu said tiredly. She leaned back in the wheelchair, exhaustion sharpening the lines on her face. She hadn't gotten fat during her pregnancy, though the rosy glow of happiness that had sustained her through everything had sharpened into anxiety and fear she barely hid.

"You look beat," Mai remarked.

"It was worth it." Anzu smiled, though it was strained. None of them could ever know exactly what she had been through. Even Yuugi, who had been there at the end, would never know the heart-stopping terror she had endured when she collapsed in the middle of the supermarket amid the jars of marmalade and fish paste. For a while there had been a real chance both she and her baby would die. The latter still might. She met Mai's eyes and then Jounouchi's. "Your turn next."

Jounouchi swallowed. Where did that lump in his throat come from? "Yeah."

"Do me a favour?"

"Sure."

"Be less dramatic?"

"With parents like us? This kid is gonna pee drama and poop pizzazz." Jounouchi bunched a fist, forcing vigour into his voice. "Just like your little guy."

"Girl."

He faltered. "Girl? Didn't you say you were having a boy?"

"She kept her hand in the way through ever single photograph," Anzu said. "So we just said 'he' and figured we'd be happy with a boy or a girl, as long as it was … healthy." Her voice cracked a little on the last word.

Yuugi nodded. "Her name's Sakura."

"Oh." Jounouchi fumbled for a response. Finally he decided to approach the box and address the baby inside instead of her distraught parents. His voice dropped to a whisper of its own accord. His stomach leapt into his throat and his insides twisted. Man, what the heck was he going to be like when his own son arrived? "Uh, hi, Sakura. Welcome to the world."

The box bleeped.

He glanced back at Yuugi and Anzu. "Don't go anywhere yet, okay? You got two people you gotta meet first. They're, uh, awesome. Real awesome. And they're gonna be awesome parents too, so you just, uh, get your vitamins or whatever and get big and strong so you can come home with 'em soon, okay?" He nodded. "Okay."

Mai shook her head. "Idiot."

"Hey, I'm a great motivational speaker," said Jounouchi. "Ask anyone." He leaned in close and cupped his hand around his mouth. "They got a lot of love for you, kid. Don't keep 'em waiting too long."

The baby in the box didn't move, but he liked to think she had heard him.

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_**Fin.**_

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